Barclays Puts the Safety Deposit Box in the Cloud

Barclays online banking customers will now be able to scan and upload important documents a cloud-based document storage system.

Barclays released a new cloud-based document management system for its online banking customers today called Cloud IT. Users will be able to scan, upload and save personal documents such as drivers licenses or passports to the system for safekeeping, Barclays said.

Cloud IT will be accessible through Barclays online banking homepage when users log in. Business banking clients of Barclays will also be able to use the service to upload business documents.

The service is being made available to online banking automatically and has been pre-populated with customers’ bank statements and other banking correspondence.

All documents uploaded to the system appear in a “document stream,” which shows all of a user’s activity in the system in chronological order. Users can also set up email and text alerts for documents uploaded to the system such as payment deadlines for bills, or renewal dates for insurance policies. Barclays said that it plans to integrate the service with its mobile banking offering as well in the near future.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio

The cloud is great for document back up and record keeping, but customers will still need a physical safety deposit box for 'hard' assets ... jewelry and such. It would be interesting to see a study of how many 'paper' documents are kept in safety deposit boxes. If a lot of people use safety deposit boxes just to keep copies of wills and important records, the cloud version might be a great option. There is also the legal question: will a court accept a cloud version of a will or other important document?